Taking It Slow and Easy

I recently got back from Las Vegas.  After spending four days there away from my family and with so many distractions, I have come to realize that I'm definitely a family man.  It is fun to go out to eat, have buffet after buffet sitting in front of you and being able to stay out as late as you want but at the end of the day, it's nice to have someone greeting you at home each day, to say good morning to, to enjoy a good meal with and to just spend your life with.

So after a long and tiring trip and being extremely worn out, I decided to just go ahead and take a day off and enjoy being home.  I wanted to keep things light and easy without any fuss.  I had too many prepared meals and too many chefs on my plate the past few days (I know, it's a terrible problem right?) that I just felt in the mood to have a good home cooked meal. 

No other way around it, it was a day designed for a nice pulled pork plate.  If you didn't know, a good pulled pork, like living a good life, is easy to do but you just need to pay attention to the little details along the way and not take too many shortcuts.

I got up around 8 and pulled a nice hunk of pork shoulder out of the fridge.  You want it to be sitting out a little bit to get the meat slightly warmer so it would adhere more of the smoke flavor.  I then started off slowly cleaning the grill a bit, stacking the charcoal and wood chunks carefully in the smoker to get an even distribution of smoke all along the way and then lighting it.

Before

After that, it was scorning the fat cap of the meat to add bark which is where all the flavor comes from.  I seasoned the meat. Some like to add olive oil on the outside before putting on the salt rub but I think this is an unnecessary step.  I let the meat sit there seasoned for about 30 minutes while getting my smoker up to about 150 degrees.  Once I notice the smoke slowly billowing out of the grill, I place the meat on.  The thing with smoked meats is once the outside of the meat hits a certain temperature, it won't take any more smoke. So in order to get the most smoke taste in that amount of time, you want a decent amount of smoke to be developing in as low of a temperature as you can.  After about an hour of me keeping the grill at 175-200 depending on how good the show I am watching is at that time, I get the grill up to about 225 and let it sit there for another 3 hours.

Slicing about 1 inch groves into the fat cap.

Season heavily

After four hours on smoker with fat cap down

Placed in pan with fat cap up

After about 10 hours of total cook time. Extremely tender and moist.

After a total of four hours, I remove off the grill and stick the meat in a tin foil pan and tightly cover with tin foil.  You have two choices after that. You can put it back on the smoker and keep cooking it while having to check the temperature here and there or just sticking  it in the oven and cooking it.  I like just sticking it in the oven and cooking it. Remember, after a certain temp, it's not getting any smokier, so keeping a consistent temperature is more important at this stage.  I like to keep it in the oven for about 5 or 6 more hours at 300 degrees. And after 10 hours of total cooking, you get tender, easily pulled and moist meat. Not too much of a fuss and really only 45 minutes of real effort.  Slap some Bush's baked beans in the microwave, toast up some thick buttered bread and maybe a steam fresh bag of corn and you have yourself a meal fit for kings.  I don't understand why BBQ'ing  is so difficult to some. It does take time to cook but if you do it right, you don't have to do too much at all. Sounds much like life again doesn't it?  I guess there are just some people who like to complain. Me, I'd rather just sit around and eat a good meal with my kids.

Till next time friends, keep it simple, take it slow, and embrace the small details of your life. You'd live more satisfying when things get done.

Here We Go Again

My how the times have gone. It seems like it's been so long ago since I last wrote. No real reason, just needed to live more than I needed to write. Things have changed dramatically in my life since my last post. We will find out soon if it is for the better or not.

A few months ago, I had a choice to make at work on whether or not it was still making me happy, and bringing fulfillment in my life.  There were many changes taking place at the office and I just didn't feel like the direction it was taking was best suited for me and if I liked my place in their plans.  So with my wife's blessing and support, I decided to just move on and find something else that was more suited to my needs and my family's demands. So I quit my job of 11 years and moved on. 

I planned my departure to coincide with the summer and when my kids were out of school.  A little break from the working routine and a lot of time with the kids was sure in order.  Though we still made sure we sent them to summer camps and such to save my sanity and give the kids a resemblance of structure, we made sure we planned fun and inventive camps for them to attend.  My lovely wife set it all up and took full advantage of my non-working status.  Parts of the summer had me picking up kids at various locales and taking them other places, other times they were only signed up for half day camps, sometimes I drove 5 minutes to drop them off and other times I was away for 30-45. It was tiring and fun. Did I wish I stayed at work a few of them days? Sure, but seeing how much my kids enjoyed having me available was really nice.

I took the free time I had to relax some. Went fishing one of those days and played a round of golf somewhere in there too. The rest of that time I just spent reading, researching and planning out my new career path. With everything on the table to choose from and so many directions I might want to go laid before me I decided to start narrowing the list. Going back to school, real estate, working in a kitchen, even starting a small restaurant or owning some other small business.  I spent months narrowing down the list, figuring out all the risks involved, figuring out the money and cash flows and making valuable contacts and picking their brains on the pitfalls and jubilation of their respective businesses. It's been interesting to learn about and talk to so many people in jobs and industries I didn't know about before. I have grown exponentially during this entire process.  Something I believe I would have never been able to experience had I not made this leap.

Now with the kids back in school, I have kicked up the job search and have it close to being nailed down. Once the deal is final, I will make sure to keep you all posted on my new adventure. It should be pretty interesting to say the least.  As always, I apologize for all grammar errors.  Enjoy the summer camp pics and various random shots of food and friends. Life is given to use one minute at a time, might as well enjoy every one of them.

First time tubing with the family.

Just a nutty kid.

First day of First Grade

Getting nuttier

Our California trip added on a few pounds with stuff like this.

Had to visit the legend that is Pink's

Being that nutty sure takes it out of him.

Photo bombed by Minnie Mouse. Cora wasn't happy about it as you can see.

But who doesn't like Mickey right?

Back at the nutty thing.

He learned that sweets eating thing from his mom obviously.